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Anurova I, Vetchinnikova S, Dobrego A, Williams N, Mikusova N, Suni A, Mauranen A, Palva S. Event-related responses reflect chunk boundaries in natural speech. Neuroimage 2022; 255:119203. [PMID: 35413442 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2022.119203] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/01/2021] [Revised: 03/22/2022] [Accepted: 04/08/2022] [Indexed: 10/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Chunking language has been proposed to be vital for comprehension enabling the extraction of meaning from a continuous stream of speech. However, neurocognitive mechanisms of chunking are poorly understood. The present study investigated neural correlates of chunk boundaries intuitively identified by listeners in natural speech drawn from linguistic corpora using magneto- and electroencephalography (MEEG). In a behavioral experiment, subjects marked chunk boundaries in the excerpts intuitively, which revealed highly consistent chunk boundary markings across the subjects. We next recorded brain activity to investigate whether chunk boundaries with high and medium agreement rates elicit distinct evoked responses compared to non-boundaries. Pauses placed at chunk boundaries elicited a closure positive shift with the sources over bilateral auditory cortices. In contrast, pauses placed within a chunk were perceived as interruptions and elicited a biphasic emitted potential with sources located in the bilateral primary and non-primary auditory areas with right-hemispheric dominance, and in the right inferior frontal cortex. Furthermore, pauses placed at stronger boundaries elicited earlier and more prominent activation over the left hemisphere suggesting that brain responses to chunk boundaries of natural speech can be modulated by the relative strength of different linguistic cues, such as syntactic structure and prosody.
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Affiliation(s)
- Irina Anurova
- Helsinki Institute of Life Sciences, Neuroscience Center, University of Helsinki, Finland; BioMag Laboratory, HUS Medical Imaging Center, Helsinki, Finland.
| | | | | | - Nitin Williams
- Helsinki Institute of Life Sciences, Neuroscience Center, University of Helsinki, Finland; Department of Languages, University of Helsinki, Finland
| | - Nina Mikusova
- Department of Languages, University of Helsinki, Finland
| | - Antti Suni
- Department of Languages, University of Helsinki, Finland
| | - Anna Mauranen
- Department of Languages, University of Helsinki, Finland
| | - Satu Palva
- Helsinki Institute of Life Sciences, Neuroscience Center, University of Helsinki, Finland; Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience, Institute of Neuroscience and Psychology, University of Glasgow, United Kingdom.
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Ou SC, Guo ZC. The effect of lengthening aspiration on speech segmentation. JASA EXPRESS LETTERS 2022; 2:045202. [PMID: 36154225 DOI: 10.1121/10.0010242] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/16/2023]
Abstract
Listeners tend to perceive longer vowels as word-final and include the aspiration of a syllable-onset consonant in metalinguistically judging the duration of the following vowel. It may be hypothesized that longer aspiration is interpreted as extra vowel duration and hence, a word-finality cue. Alternatively, if aspiration is perceived as part of the onset, longer aspiration should be interpreted as word-initial, consistent with previous findings on consonant lengthening [White, Mattys, Stefansdottir, and Jones (2015). J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 138(2), 1214-1220]. An artificial language learning experiment with Taiwanese Southern Min listeners showed that lengthening aspiration in word-initial but not word-final syllables improved speech segmentation, supporting the second but not the first hypothesis.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shu-Chen Ou
- Department of Foreign Languages and Literature, National Sun Yat-sen University, Kaohsiung City, 80424, Taiwan
| | - Zhe-Chen Guo
- Department of Linguistics, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712, USA ,
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Matzinger T, Fitch WT. Voice modulatory cues to structure across languages and species. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2021; 376:20200393. [PMID: 34719253 PMCID: PMC8558770 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2020.0393] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 07/05/2021] [Indexed: 12/21/2022] Open
Abstract
Voice modulatory cues such as variations in fundamental frequency, duration and pauses are key factors for structuring vocal signals in human speech and vocal communication in other tetrapods. Voice modulation physiology is highly similar in humans and other tetrapods due to shared ancestry and shared functional pressures for efficient communication. This has led to similarly structured vocalizations across humans and other tetrapods. Nonetheless, in their details, structural characteristics may vary across species and languages. Because data concerning voice modulation in non-human tetrapod vocal production and especially perception are relatively scarce compared to human vocal production and perception, this review focuses on voice modulatory cues used for speech segmentation across human languages, highlighting comparative data where available. Cues that are used similarly across many languages may help indicate which cues may result from physiological or basic cognitive constraints, and which cues may be employed more flexibly and are shaped by cultural evolution. This suggests promising candidates for future investigation of cues to structure in non-human tetrapod vocalizations. This article is part of the theme issue 'Voice modulation: from origin and mechanism to social impact (Part I)'.
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Affiliation(s)
- Theresa Matzinger
- Department of Behavioral and Cognitive Biology, University of Vienna, 1030 Vienna, Austria
- Department of English, University of Vienna, 1090 Vienna, Austria
| | - W. Tecumseh Fitch
- Department of Behavioral and Cognitive Biology, University of Vienna, 1030 Vienna, Austria
- Department of English, University of Vienna, 1090 Vienna, Austria
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Katz J, Moore MW. Phonetic Effects in Child and Adult Word Segmentation. JOURNAL OF SPEECH, LANGUAGE, AND HEARING RESEARCH : JSLHR 2021; 64:854-869. [PMID: 33571028 DOI: 10.1044/2020_jslhr-19-00275] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/12/2023]
Abstract
Purpose The aim of the study was to investigate the effects of specific acoustic patterns on word learning and segmentation in 8- to 11-year-old children and in college students. Method Twenty-two children (ages 8;2-11;4 [years;months]) and 36 college students listened to synthesized "utterances" in artificial languages consisting of six iterated "words," which followed either a phonetically natural lenition-fortition pattern or an unnatural (cross-linguistically unattested) antilenition pattern. A two-alternative forced-choice task tested whether they could discriminate between occurring and nonoccurring sequences. Participants were exposed to both languages, counterbalanced for order across subjects, in sessions spaced at least 1 month apart. Results Children showed little evidence for learning in either the phonetically natural or unnatural condition nor evidence of differences in learning across the two conditions. Adults showed the predicted (and previously attested) interaction between learning and phonetic condition: The phonetically natural language was learned better. The adults also showed a strong effect of session: Subjects performed much worse during the second session than the first. Conclusions School-age children not only failed to demonstrate the phonetic asymmetry demonstrated by adults in previous studies but also failed to show strong evidence for any learning at all. The fact that the phonetic asymmetry (and general learning effect) was replicated with adults suggests that the child result is not due to inadequate stimuli or procedures. The strong carryover effect for adults also suggests that they retain knowledge about the sound patterns of an artificial language for over a month, longer than has been reported in laboratory studies of purely phonetic/phonological learning. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.13641284.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jonah Katz
- Department of World Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics, West Virginia University, Morgantown
| | - Michelle W Moore
- Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, West Virginia University, Morgantown
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Matzinger T, Ritt N, Fitch WT. The Influence of Different Prosodic Cues on Word Segmentation. Front Psychol 2021; 12:622042. [PMID: 33796045 PMCID: PMC8007974 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.622042] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/27/2020] [Accepted: 02/02/2021] [Indexed: 12/02/2022] Open
Abstract
A prerequisite for spoken language learning is segmenting continuous speech into words. Amongst many possible cues to identify word boundaries, listeners can use both transitional probabilities between syllables and various prosodic cues. However, the relative importance of these cues remains unclear, and previous experiments have not directly compared the effects of contrasting multiple prosodic cues. We used artificial language learning experiments, where native German speaking participants extracted meaningless trisyllabic "words" from a continuous speech stream, to evaluate these factors. We compared a baseline condition (statistical cues only) to five test conditions, in which word-final syllables were either (a) followed by a pause, (b) lengthened, (c) shortened, (d) changed to a lower pitch, or (e) changed to a higher pitch. To evaluate robustness and generality we used three tasks varying in difficulty. Overall, pauses and final lengthening were perceived as converging with the statistical cues and facilitated speech segmentation, with pauses helping most. Final-syllable shortening hindered baseline speech segmentation, indicating that when cues conflict, prosodic cues can override statistical cues. Surprisingly, pitch cues had little effect, suggesting that duration may be more relevant for speech segmentation than pitch in our study context. We discuss our findings with regard to the contribution to speech segmentation of language-universal boundary cues vs. language-specific stress patterns.
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Affiliation(s)
- Theresa Matzinger
- Department of English, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
- Department of Behavioral and Cognitive Biology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
| | - Nikolaus Ritt
- Department of English, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
| | - W. Tecumseh Fitch
- Department of Behavioral and Cognitive Biology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
- Cognitive Science Hub, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
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Frost RLA, Dunn K, Christiansen MH, Gómez RL, Monaghan P. Exploring the "anchor word" effect in infants: Segmentation and categorisation of speech with and without high frequency words. PLoS One 2020; 15:e0243436. [PMID: 33332419 PMCID: PMC7746152 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0243436] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/31/2020] [Accepted: 11/23/2020] [Indexed: 12/03/2022] Open
Abstract
High frequency words play a key role in language acquisition, with recent work suggesting they may serve both speech segmentation and lexical categorisation. However, it is not yet known whether infants can detect novel high frequency words in continuous speech, nor whether they can use them to help learning for segmentation and categorisation at the same time. For instance, when hearing "you eat the biscuit", can children use the high-frequency words "you" and "the" to segment out "eat" and "biscuit", and determine their respective lexical categories? We tested this in two experiments. In Experiment 1, we familiarised 12-month-old infants with continuous artificial speech comprising repetitions of target words, which were preceded by high-frequency marker words that distinguished the targets into two distributional categories. In Experiment 2, we repeated the task using the same language but with additional phonological cues to word and category structure. In both studies, we measured learning with head-turn preference tests of segmentation and categorisation, and compared performance against a control group that heard the artificial speech without the marker words (i.e., just the targets). There was no evidence that high frequency words helped either speech segmentation or grammatical categorisation. However, segmentation was seen to improve when the distributional information was supplemented with phonological cues (Experiment 2). In both experiments, exploratory analysis indicated that infants' looking behaviour was related to their linguistic maturity (indexed by infants' vocabulary scores) with infants with high versus low vocabulary scores displaying novelty and familiarity preferences, respectively. We propose that high-frequency words must reach a critical threshold of familiarity before they can be of significant benefit to learning.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Kirsty Dunn
- Lancaster University, Lancaster, United Kingdom
| | | | - Rebecca L. Gómez
- University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, United States of America
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Boll-Avetisyan N, Bhatara A, Höhle B. Processing of Rhythm in Speech and Music in Adult Dyslexia. Brain Sci 2020; 10:brainsci10050261. [PMID: 32365799 PMCID: PMC7287596 DOI: 10.3390/brainsci10050261] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/23/2019] [Revised: 04/24/2020] [Accepted: 04/29/2020] [Indexed: 11/21/2022] Open
Abstract
Recent studies have suggested that musical rhythm perception ability can affect the phonological system. The most prevalent causal account for developmental dyslexia is the phonological deficit hypothesis. As rhythm is a subpart of phonology, we hypothesized that reading deficits in dyslexia are associated with rhythm processing in speech and in music. In a rhythmic grouping task, adults with diagnosed dyslexia and age-matched controls listened to speech streams with syllables alternating in intensity, duration, or neither, and indicated whether they perceived a strong-weak or weak-strong rhythm pattern. Additionally, their reading and musical rhythm abilities were measured. Results showed that adults with dyslexia had lower musical rhythm abilities than adults without dyslexia. Moreover, lower musical rhythm ability was associated with lower reading ability in dyslexia. However, speech grouping by adults with dyslexia was not impaired when musical rhythm perception ability was controlled: like adults without dyslexia, they showed consistent preferences. However, rhythmic grouping was predicted by musical rhythm perception ability, irrespective of dyslexia. The results suggest associations among musical rhythm perception ability, speech rhythm perception, and reading ability. This highlights the importance of considering individual variability to better understand dyslexia and raises the possibility that musical rhythm perception ability is a key to phonological and reading acquisition.
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Affiliation(s)
- Natalie Boll-Avetisyan
- SFB1287, Research Focus Cognitive Sciences, Faculty of Human Sciences, University of Potsdam, Karl-Liebknecht-Str. 24-25, 14476 Potsdam, Germany;
- Correspondence: ; Tel.: +49-331-977-2374
| | - Anjali Bhatara
- CNRS, (Integrative Neuroscience and Cognition Center, UMR 8002), Université de Paris, 45 rue des Saints-Pères, 75270 Paris, France;
| | - Barbara Höhle
- SFB1287, Research Focus Cognitive Sciences, Faculty of Human Sciences, University of Potsdam, Karl-Liebknecht-Str. 24-25, 14476 Potsdam, Germany;
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de Boer JN, Linszen MMJ, de Vries J, Schutte MJL, Begemann MJH, Heringa SM, Bohlken MM, Hugdahl K, Aleman A, Wijnen FNK, Sommer IEC. Auditory hallucinations, top-down processing and language perception: a general population study. Psychol Med 2019; 49:2772-2780. [PMID: 30606279 PMCID: PMC6877468 DOI: 10.1017/s003329171800380x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/20/2018] [Revised: 11/13/2018] [Accepted: 11/21/2018] [Indexed: 12/15/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Studies investigating the underlying mechanisms of hallucinations in patients with schizophrenia suggest that an imbalance in top-down expectations v. bottom-up processing underlies these errors in perception. This study evaluates this hypothesis by testing if individuals drawn from the general population who have had auditory hallucinations (AH) have more misperceptions in auditory language perception than those who have never hallucinated. METHODS We used an online survey to determine the presence of hallucinations. Participants filled out the Questionnaire for Psychotic Experiences and participated in an auditory verbal recognition task to assess both correct perceptions (hits) and misperceptions (false alarms). A hearing test was performed to screen for hearing problems. RESULTS A total of 5115 individuals from the general Dutch population participated in this study. Participants who reported AH in the week preceding the test had a higher false alarm rate in their auditory perception compared with those without such (recent) experiences. The more recent the AH were experienced, the more mistakes participants made. While the presence of verbal AH (AVH) was predictive for false alarm rate in auditory language perception, the presence of non-verbal or visual hallucinations were not. CONCLUSIONS The presence of AVH predicted false alarm rate in auditory language perception, whereas the presence of non-verbal auditory or visual hallucinations was not, suggesting that enhanced top-down processing does not transfer across modalities. More false alarms were observed in participants who reported more recent AVHs. This is in line with models of enhanced influence of top-down expectations in persons who hallucinate.
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Affiliation(s)
- J. N. de Boer
- Department of Psychiatry, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht University & Brain Center Rudolf Magnus, Utrecht, The Netherlands
| | - M. M. J. Linszen
- Department of Neuroscience and Department of Psychiatry, University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands
| | - J. de Vries
- Department of Psychiatry, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht University & Brain Center Rudolf Magnus, Utrecht, The Netherlands
| | - M. J. L. Schutte
- Department of Neuroscience and Department of Psychiatry, University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands
| | - M. J. H. Begemann
- Department of Neuroscience and Department of Psychiatry, University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands
| | - S. M. Heringa
- Department of Psychiatry, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht University & Brain Center Rudolf Magnus, Utrecht, The Netherlands
| | - M. M. Bohlken
- Department of Psychiatry, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht University & Brain Center Rudolf Magnus, Utrecht, The Netherlands
| | - K. Hugdahl
- Department of Biological and Medical Psychology, University of Bergen, Norway
- Division of Psychiatry, Haukeland University Hospital, Bergen, Norway
| | - A. Aleman
- Department of Neuroscience and Department of Psychiatry, University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands
| | - F. N. K. Wijnen
- Utrecht University, Utrecht Institute of Linguistics OTS, Utrecht, The Netherlands
| | - I. E. C. Sommer
- Department of Neuroscience and Department of Psychiatry, University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands
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Frost RLA, Monaghan P, Christiansen MH. Mark my words: High frequency marker words impact early stages of language learning. J Exp Psychol Learn Mem Cogn 2019; 45:1883-1898. [PMID: 30652894 PMCID: PMC6746567 DOI: 10.1037/xlm0000683] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/10/2018] [Revised: 11/08/2018] [Accepted: 11/08/2018] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Abstract
High frequency words have been suggested to benefit both speech segmentation and grammatical categorization of the words around them. Despite utilizing similar information, these tasks are usually investigated separately in studies examining learning. We determined whether including high frequency words in continuous speech could support categorization when words are being segmented for the first time. We familiarized learners with continuous artificial speech comprising repetitions of target words, which were preceded by high-frequency marker words. Crucially, marker words distinguished targets into 2 distributionally defined categories. We measured learning with segmentation and categorization tests and compared performance against a control group that heard the artificial speech without these marker words (i.e., just the targets, with no cues for categorization). Participants segmented the target words from speech in both conditions, but critically when the marker words were present, they influenced acquisition of word-referent mappings in a subsequent transfer task, with participants demonstrating better early learning for mappings that were consistent (rather than inconsistent) with the distributional categories. We propose that high-frequency words may assist early grammatical categorization, while speech segmentation is still being learned. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).
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Hilton M, Räling R, Wartenburger I, Elsner B. Parallels in Processing Boundary Cues in Speech and Action. Front Psychol 2019; 10:1566. [PMID: 31379649 PMCID: PMC6646704 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01566] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/06/2019] [Accepted: 06/20/2019] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Speech and action sequences are continuous streams of information that can be segmented into sub-units. In both domains, this segmentation can be facilitated by perceptual cues contained within the information stream. In speech, prosodic cues (e.g., a pause, pre-boundary lengthening, and pitch rise) mark boundaries between words and phrases, while boundaries between actions of an action sequence can be marked by kinematic cues (e.g., a pause, pre-boundary deceleration). The processing of prosodic boundary cues evokes an Event-related Potentials (ERP) component known as the Closure Positive Shift (CPS), and it is possible that the CPS reflects domain-general cognitive processes involved in segmentation, given that the CPS is also evoked by boundaries between subunits of non-speech auditory stimuli. This study further probed the domain-generality of the CPS and its underlying processes by investigating electrophysiological correlates of the processing of boundary cues in sequences of spoken verbs (auditory stimuli; Experiment 1; N = 23 adults) and actions (visual stimuli; Experiment 2; N = 23 adults). The EEG data from both experiments revealed a CPS-like broadly distributed positivity during the 250 ms prior to the onset of the post-boundary word or action, indicating similar electrophysiological correlates of boundary processing across domains, suggesting that the cognitive processes underlying speech and action segmentation might also be shared.
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Affiliation(s)
- Matt Hilton
- Department of Psychology, Cognitive Sciences, University of Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany
| | - Romy Räling
- Department of Linguistics, Cognitive Sciences, University of Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany
| | - Isabell Wartenburger
- Department of Linguistics, Cognitive Sciences, University of Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany
| | - Birgit Elsner
- Department of Psychology, Cognitive Sciences, University of Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany
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